How the New Grade 4 and 5 Spaces Are Built for Learning 

This week, we launch a series deep diving into the new Elementary School spaces. First up: the Grade 4 and Grade 5 communities, designed to give teachers more ways to support student learning, deepen understanding and develop greater independence. These spaces were built by asking, "What do students need to learn best?" Nina Triado, Strategic Coach & Learning Leader for EAL, takes us through the spaces.   

Can you introduce what a day looks like in Grade 4 and 5 in the new spaces? 

Students start their day in their homeroom with their morning meeting. From there, the day unfolds flexibly but always with a plan. For math, literacy, or their unit of inquiry, teachers deliberately group and regroup students and use different spaces to match the learning goal. Grade 4 and Grade 5 are our largest communities, so we really leveraged the design: opening up wall spaces so students can move easily from one room to another, and building up, with mezzanines and lofts that create more opportunities for independent learning. 

How often regrouping happens depends on the unit. In Grade 5's unit of inquiry on animal adaptations, for example, students spent the first half of the unit with their homeroom class, rotating from room to room to explore a different adaptation with a different teacher, then moved into interest groups for the second half. In Grade 4 math, students are grouped by skill and need; during parts of a lesson, the EAL teacher might take students from across the groups to strengthen the mathematical language they need to explain their thinking, before they return to their groups to continue. In a different Math unit, students who demonstrate secure understanding of the taught concept, for example place-value, may form a small extension group, applying their understanding to complex, real-world problems or tackling multi-step challenges. The spaces make this possible: while one group receives targeted support, another can extend their understanding by testing ideas and revising their thinking based on evidence. 

Groups aren't reshuffled daily, they usually stay consistent for several weeks, giving students stability as well as flexibility. This flexibility is teacher-led, teachers make deliberate decisions about grouping, space and support based on what students are learning and what they need next. 

What do students at this age need from their learning environment? 

This is the age when students are increasingly expected to plan their work, organize their materials, sustain focus for longer stretches, work with increasingly complex texts and ideas, explain and justify their thinking, collaborate on complex tasks, and manage growing independence. The spaces are designed to support that, with areas for both independent and collaborative work and writable surfaces that let students document their learning as it happens, and leave it up for others to see.  

When a teacher can see a student's reasoning written out, they can spot a misconception as it's developing, compare different approaches side by side, and ask students to explain or defend their thinking. Because the work stays up, students can return to earlier ideas and revise them, and teachers can use what they see to decide what needs consolidation and what's ready to be extended. 

How do classrooms support different learners while maintaining high expectations? 

High expectations are made visible to students from the start. Teachers share clear learning goals and success criteria, show exemplars so students can see what quality work looks like, and provide scaffolding to help every learner get there. The level of support may differ, but the learning goal remains clear and ambitious. 

In a persuasive writing unit, for example, students deconstruct a real persuasive speech to identify its key components and language features, then use tools such as graphic organizers and sentence stems as needed. Teachers provide targeted small-group instruction: one group might focus on using modal verbs more effectively, while another develops stronger claims. As students progress through Grades 4 and 5, they are expected to sustain ideas over longer pieces, support claims with relevant evidence and detail, use more precise vocabulary and varied sentence structures, and organize their reasoning clearly. 

How do these spaces support both collaboration and focused independent work without becoming noisy or distracting? 

Clear expectations extend to how each space is used and how it sounds. Teachers establish explicit norms for each zone: breakout spaces are for discussion and group work, while nooks and lofts are for concentration. A shared tool makes this consistent across the whole Elementary School: the WAB Noise Level meter, the tiger poster displayed around the school, which defines four voice levels: zero, whisper, partner, and presentation. A teacher might signal that the table area is at zero voice for students working independently, while the carpet space is at partner voice for a quiet discussion. Teachers also monitor how spaces are being used and can regroup or redirect students if a spot isn't working for them. 

Does student agency mean students decide everything? 

No — but students do have a genuine say. The IB defines agency as voice, choice, and ownership, and the teacher's role is to help students unpack what that means: developing skills like goal setting, self-regulation, decision-making, and reflection. In practice, students make meaningful choices within a framework teachers establish. Agency grows as students become better able to make informed decisions about how they approach a learning goal, use feedback, judge the quality of their work, and decide what they need to do next. Teachers set and clarify the learning intention, explicitly review the success criteria so every student knows what success looks like, and monitor progress along the way.  

Where do the Grade 4 and Grade 5 spaces draw inspiration from? 

As parents may know, the Elementary School renovation was designed around the theme of a Journey Through China, with each grade-level community drawing inspiration from a different region or landscape. 

Graceful Guilin, our Grade 5 community, draws on the karst mountain ranges and rivers of the region. Sustainability was intentionally woven into the materials — a natural fit for Grade 5 students, who explore the Sustainable Development Goals in PYP Exhibition. Grade 4's Jiangnan Jewel takes its inspiration from China's water towns with elements reflecting the region’s stone bridges and winding canals.